


Behold, ye mighty

by SkittishCat



Series: Beyond the Walls [1]
Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Gen, World's largest salt lick, badassery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2020-10-11 19:05:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20551187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkittishCat/pseuds/SkittishCat
Summary: A newcomer and his people are protected from an expansionist foe as Clementine demonstrates that she's become a regional power.





	Behold, ye mighty

They came from the southwest, another caravan, much like the one he’d arrived in. He could see them stop when they came into view of what awaited them, no doubt shocked by what they saw. If they were like his party, they’d have a brief chat about whether or not to continue down into the Conemaugh valley before coming to the same conclusion that his group had; they had no choice. They either had to come to the table and negotiate with The Provident, or The Provident would come to them. It would be humiliating, surrendering their people’s sovereignty without a fight, but at least they’d survive, and the terms they could negotiate would be far more favorable than the ones that’d be dictated to them in defeat, and judging from what greeted them in the valley, defeat was all but certain if chose to resist. 

Sure enough after pausing for a few minutes, the caravan continued down to the checkpoint at the edge of town, where they were stopped by Provident soldiers. They dismounted, revealing a group of about twenty. The soldiers quickly divided them into two groups, having about a dozen of them proceed on foot toward the field where Glenn and his group had been ordered to wait, while the rest were taken with their wagons to a nearby ruin, where he lost sight of them. 

Watching their approach gave Glenn time to size them up. Every one of them had grey hair, which meant he’d have to be prepared to be called “kid” even more than he already had been. They all wore clothing made of various animal products, buckskin, wool, furs, and leather. He assumed this meant that ranching and hunting were prominent in their society. All but one of them appeared fairly well developed, three of them looked like they were easily over six foot tall, while five of them could be considered obese. Food must have been plentiful where they came from. Curiously he noticed there was only one pair that could be seen talking to each other during their walk to the field. The rest just quietly observed their surroundings, which lead him to believe that most these people were not friends to one another.

Seeing them in person left Glenn wondering how these rustic hill people had managed to remain free of The Commonwealth’s grasp. His only guess was that even at the height of their expansionist period, The Commonwealth just didn’t want them. His dad had told him about his days in The Commonwealth, before the rift had left it splintered, but he’d never mentioned why they’d chosen to expand to some areas and not others. When he got home, Glenn would have to ask his parents about it… If he got home…

From a shelter that had been hastily built onto an old baseball dugout emerged the Provident official who’d ordered his group to sit in what remained of the bleachers. She was tall and stout, dressed in the black clerical attire that Glenn had quickly come to associate with Provident leadership. It corresponded with the uniforms of their soldiers, who wore black with the white trim, consistent what appeared to be their overall ecclesiastical theme.

As soon as the second group was assembled on the field, she launched into what seemed to be the same speech she’d given to his group. “I welcome you, people of Appalachia, to our family. I cannot begin to express how overjoyed we are that you have seen the wisdom of joining us here this day. Truly, His providence shines upon you, and upon us all. Rejoice, for your presence here today means that you stand among the chosen. Take heart in the knowledge that all is as the prophet has foreseen. The wicked have been scourged from the earth and the flood of the dead has been allowed to return to dust. Now is the time for the world of man to be rebuilt anew. It is we who have been granted the great privilege to perform this most historic of labors, and we shall do it under the enlightened leadership of one who speaks with the Lord’s own voice, Father Arden Deror.” 

Glenn watched her face as she delivered her speech. She’d periodically pause to savor the dismay of her audience and the Appalachian delegates didn’t disappoint her. They’d look at each other with unease as she rambled on about prophecies and how they’d all benefit from their “choice” to become her vassal state… all except one, the smallest of their group. She kept her eyes locked on the administrator with a glare that Glenn knew was just asking for trouble. 

The Provident soldiers moved in closer to the Appalachian representatives as the administrator arrived at the part of her speech where she gave her warning about weapons, just as they had when she was giving her speech to his group. “I trust you were all advised to leave any weapons with your horsemen, but just for the sake of clarity, I will reiterate, emotions tend to run high whenever we welcome newcomers to the fold, they tend to chafe at our laws, our restrictions, our… tithes. It’s best for the safety of all that no one at the table possess anything that could possibly be misused as a weapon. Even common tools or utensils should be left behind. If any of you should have perhaps made the mistake of thinking that a key or a nail file were not considered a weapon, I’ll tell you now that in this instance they are, and I ask that you kindly hand them over to whichever of our fine soldiers is standing nearest to you.”

She paused to give them a moment to think. Then, one of the tall Appalachian men pulled a multi-tool out of his pocket and handed it to a soldier. The administrator thanked him and chimed “See, that wasn’t so hard. Now is your grace period. If there are any more potentially dangerous items you would like for us to secure, this would be the time to safely hand them over. I can assure you, even if you had hid them intentionally, there will be no ill will. However, once we are at the table, if such an object were to be discovered on you, I would not be able to guarantee your safety. Please, take a moment. Check your pockets, just to be sure you didn’t place something there you may have forgotten.” 

Begrudgingly, the other delegates began extracting various sharp objects from their pockets, and in some case their sleeves and boots, with the exception of one. The small one did not move, she just continued to glare. The administrator took notice, and their eyes locked. When the flurry of activity settled down, the administrator addressed the lone holdout. 

“I take it you have nothing you wish to hand over.”

“Nope.”

“Surely, you should at least check, you may have forgotten something.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Come now, it’s been a long time since anyone’s travelled unarmed. Are you certain you aren’t concealing a weapon?’

“With all the guns you have here, I’d have to be an idiot to come armed. I left everything on the wagon.”

The administrator narrowed her gaze, placed her hands on her knees, and partially squatted so she would be at eye level with the shorter woman. In a loud, hissing whisper she proclaimed “I don’t believe you.” Then turned to the soldiers and ordered “Search her!” 

The representative rolled her eyes and put up her hands to permit the search, half-heartedly protesting “I’m not lying. They aren’t going to find anything”. 

In turn, the administrator instructed the soldiers “She has a false leg, be sure to remove it and search it thoroughly for a hidden compartment.” 

Alarmed, the Appalachian exclaimed “Oh god damn it, the harness is a fucking pain in the ass, I’m not…” Her protest was cut short by a backhand across the mouth that knocked her to the ground.

The administrator stood over her, took two exaggeratedly slow, deep breaths, then in a voice that managed to sound both soothing and menacing and the same time, explained “I know who you are. I’ve heard more about you than I really cared to. The stories I heard certainly were entertaining, but I recognized them for the fanciful lies that they were,” she smiled disingenuously “and that was when I first heard them as a little girl. Since then, they’ve only grown, and become even more ridiculous, but when you boil them down to their common elements, that’s where you find the real Clementine: You are nothing more than a murderous savage… Taking the Lord’s name in vain is the least of your sins. But, through His grace, even you will be redeemed.”

The hate filled glare Clementine shot back all but confirmed the harsh assessment. She couldn’t have been less subtle if she’d cried out to the heavens that she intended to kill this woman, but after a moment, her eyes shifted to the rifles that had been aimed at her. Her glare faded and she wiped the blood from her mouth. She hiked up her pant leg and opened her boot to display her prosthetic. The socket was wooden with leather straps attached to it that disappeared up into her trousers while the apparatus below the socket appeared to be old world tech. “It doesn’t come off very easily, that’s the point. It’s designed so I can run with it. The harness goes clear up to my waist.” She turned it from side to side so it could be seen from all angles. “Look, there’s no seam in the shaft, there’s no room in the socket for anything but my stump, the joint is too small to hide anything in there, and the boot was cobbled around the foot, so I can’t take it off, all I can do is open it to get to the ankle.” She spread the fur that lined the inside of the boot, which she apparently used as padding to give her leg girth. “See, there’s nothing in there. Are you satisfied? Can I get up now?”

A man in a grey woolen suit, whose approach Glenn hadn’t observed, answered “Oh, I think it’s pretty clear you’re not armed. Sister Beatrice, a word, please.” The administrator answered “Yes, Minister” and followed the man into the dugout. One of the soldiers helped Clem to her feet. Unable to hide the look of shame on her face, Glenn could read her lips as the soldier whispered the word “sorry” to Clementine. He also noticed that none of Clem’s travelling companions could be bothered to help her up, leaving the task to the common decency of a stranger. There was more going on here than a mere lack of friendship between them.

Beatrice returned a few minutes later, without the man in the suit. “My apologies for the interruption, Minister Stock needed to update me on some matters of scheduling. It would appear our timetable has been moved up. If you would please, follow me, I’ll show you to the conference hall.”

As they walked through town, it occurred to Glenn that the route they were being taken on was unnecessarily long. This was a matter of theater. Their host wanted them to see what they were up against, the numbers of soldiers they’d amassed, their brand new rifles, and the abundance of supplies they were piling into whatever intact buildings they could find. He wondered, if they were trying this hard to _look_ powerful, how strong could they really be. Had their conquest of the north really been based on military prowess, or was it just a matter of shrewd use of intimidation? Sure, some wild tales had spread about how they’d sacked Allentown when they took Pennsylvania, but Glenn had seen the settlement in Allentown during a delivery run the previous year. It wasn’t all _that_ big…

When they arrived at their destination, a four story building in the center of town, they found The Provident’s display of power had reached its insidious peak. Hundreds of soldiers stood in formation to either side of their path, with trucks and some very large guns visible beyond them. “One-oh-fives” muttered one of the Appalachian men. Glenn looked over to see a bearded man with what was possibly the most weathered face he’d ever seen. The man must’ve seen his quizzical look and continued “Let me guess, kid, you’re too young to have ever seen artillery before. Those are 105mm howitzers, and I count four of ‘em. If they’ve got anyone who knows how to use ‘em, they’re bad news. They can tear a town apart from ten miles out.” 

Glenn wanted to take exception to being called kid again, but at the moment too much of his brain power was being used up on being terrified, so all he could manage was a weak “Oh shit.”

Once inside, they were lead through a lobby and down a corridor to a conference room. Thankfully, it was windowless, so he wouldn’t have to see any more of The Provident’s display of force. He might be able to think clearly while in there. The conference table wasn’t fancy, just several smaller tables pushed together with a number of office chairs set around them. Their host had managed to bring the electric lighting online, so that was a nice touch at least. 

Some of the chairs had name placards placed on the table in front of them, five on one end of the table, six on the other, while the rest of the seats were apparently open to anyone. Suspecting there was a placard with his name on it, Glenn began to scan the table. Sure enough, one of them said “Grimes”. The messenger who’d arrived in Alexandria specified that a member of his family had to attend, and by process of elimination, the task fell to him. He didn’t know what they had planned for him, but it was just one more thing about this day to make him nervous. 

He took a seat in the chair that had been reserved for him and looked at the name on the placard to his left. It said “Crawford”, while the one beyond it said “Garcia”. To his right the placards read “Pike” and “McCullough”. He didn’t know of anyone by the names Crawford, Pike, or McCullough, but the name Garcia was definitely familiar. The Garcia family ran Richmond and had refused to send a delegate to this conference, which was no surprise to anyone who was familiar with them. They’d kept Richmond out of The Commonwealth when their third expansion took them into Virginia. In hindsight, it turned out that this had been a wise decision. They’d kept their people free of the corruption that followed The Commonwealth wherever it went. Their decision had also saved their people from having to experience the turmoil of the rift and had left them well positioned to become Virginia’s most prosperous city. For their sake, Glenn hoped they knew what they were doing this time too.

Looking down the table he could see the remaining placards said “DMoJ. McSorley”, “DMoL. Stock”, “DMoF. Reaume”, “DMoG. Gould”, “DMoP Giap”, and “DMoI. Poulin”. None of that meant anything to him.

The rest of the delegates from Appalachia and Virginia each took a seat while one of the soldiers exited the room through a door opposite the one they’d entered through. The rest of the soldiers who’d escorted them from the ball field spread out around the edges of the conference room, while Sister Beatrice came and stood behind Glenn. “Young Mr. Grimes, I must say I’m surprised to see you here. We had expected to see your sister, or perhaps even you father if his condition permitted. Have you joined Andrea on the council?”

Timidly, Glenn answered “No ma’am, we just didn’t think it was a good idea for her to travel this close to her delivery date. Robin is Alexandria’s council member. I’m just a carpenter… and a journeyman at that. I’m only here because you wanted a Grimes.” 

Boisterously Sister Beatrice proclaimed “I take that to mean your sister is with child. Praise be! Please accept my congratulations for this glorious blessing the Lord has bestowed upon your family. And don’t you worry about your father, my dear child. We have the finest doctors in all the land. I have been assured that his condition is quite treatable. Under our care, he will live to see his grandchild grow to be strong and healthy, you can count on it.” Glenn tried desperately to hide his irritation at being called “child”. Suddenly, being called “kid” didn’t seem quite so bad. 

Beatrice glanced over at the seats next to Glenn, and her demeanor changed abruptly. Even though all of the delegates had been seated, the chairs by the Crawford or Garcia placards remained empty. She picked one up and called out “Ms. Crawford, we had a seat reserved for you here. Well, for your son at least, but since you appear to be here in his stead, the seat is yours.” No one replied, although a few did look around the room to see who she might be addressing. She called out again “Ms. Crawford, I know you can hear me.” When again she received no reply, she walked around the table and set the placard in front of Clementine, who just stared at it. 

“Still denying your surname I see. Why, I wonder? Your heirs have embraced it, they clearly don’t share your reservations. What could you possibly be trying to hide? Would you care to pass the time by regaling us with the story of why you shun your family name? Isn’t it strange how, of all the tales that have been spread about you, that particular one has remained a mystery?” She paused for a reply, only to be met with silence. “Are you always this obstinate?” Again, Clem opted to be silent. Beatrice tried one more time to get a rise out of her, asking icily “How’s the leg?” 

This time Clem answered, in a surprisingly weary tone, “It hurts. I left my cane on the wagon. I didn’t expect to do this much walking… and I didn’t want to risk someone mistaking it for a weapon.” 

Before Beatrice could needle her again, the door the soldier had left through opened. She and six others entered the room. The man in the grey suit who had interrupted Sister Beatrice at the baseball field was among them. Three of the other five appeared to be wearing old-world business attire as well, while the remaining two wore a military uniform and clerical attire respectively. All carried large stacks of files. The man on the far right began speaking even before he sat down. “Lets get this started, we haven’t got all day.” His voice was gruff and gravelly. “I am Deputy Minister of Information Marcel Poulin. To my right is Deputy Minister of Peace Diane Giap, Deputy Minister of Guidance Brother Emmet Gould, Deputy Minister of Finance Henry Reaume, Deputy Minister of Logistics James Stock, and Deputy Minister of Justice Liane McSorley. And you are, well, you. I don’t really care. I’m not here to care, that’s the clergy’s job. I’m here to restructure your governing bodies so that your regional governments will work effectively with ours, and to do so in a manner that will cause the least amount of disruption to the day to day lives of your people. Hearts and minds and all that nonsense.”

What followed was four hours of misery, and that just got them through the agendas of the first two of the ministers. After a heated argument over conscription quotas with the Minister of Peace, during which Clementine all but guaranteed an insurrection if they tried to take any of her people, a recess was called to allow passions to settle a bit. Throughout the talks Glenn did exactly what his representative had coached him to do: “Don’t speak unless spoken to,” and since no one had addressed him directly, he hadn’t uttered a peep for the entire four hours, which suited him just fine. He felt very much out of place among all of these politicians.

As he walked toward the door to exit the conference room, Glenn could hear someone call his name. “Young man! Glenn is it?” He turned to see Clementine trying to stand but leaning heavily on the table and grimacing. “Would you mind giving a crippled old lady a hand? I’d like to step out for some air, maybe clear my head, but my leg’s not doing so well. I could really use someone to lean on.” 

He paused to mull it over for a second, decided he didn’t really have anything better to do, and replied “Ok, but I’m not exactly sure what you need me to do.” 

She tucked her elbow to her side with her forearm pointing straight forward and replied “Just hold your arm like this and try to keep it rigid when I lean on it, so I can use it like I would my cane.” He did as she asked, and she in turn took hold of his arm and attempted a few ginger steps. “See it works… not that I doubted you... I mean… look, I appreciate this, really.” 

As they made their way to the door, they were intercepted by Minister Stock. “Ah, Clementine, I was hoping to catch you. I was moved by your plea to save your people from the burdens of conscription. I think I might be able to work out compromise.” He held up a dossier, implying the details of his plan were contained inside “I take it you were on your way outside? May I join you, to brief you on my plan so we can present it upon our return?” 

Before she could answer, a familiar voice could be heard from behind the minister. Sister Beatrice had made her presence known. “You’re wasting your time with this one, Minister, there’s no point in bargaining with her. You know full well, whatever deal you make with her, she will not honor it. It won’t be long before she’s a permanent guest of the Ministry of Guidance, where she may spend the rest of her days in receipt of His grace. Speaking of which, Brother Emmett sent me to find you, he would like a word with you about our earlier discussion at the ball field.” Glenn could feel Clem’s grip tighten on his arm, and when he looked over at her, both she and the Minister had gone deathly pale. 

“Of course” The Minister replied. “I’ll be right there.” He took a few steps to follow Beatrice, and then turned back toward Clementine. “Here, since I won’t be joining you, at least you can take this and peruse it before your return.” She tentatively reached out to take the folder from him, which Glenn noticed was now significantly thicker than it had been when he’d held it up just a moment earlier. She quickly tucked it under her arm once its mass had transferred to her hand.

She looked down and blinked heavily a few times before looking back at him and issuing a somber “Thank you”. He gave her a comforting smile, then replied “It’s been an honor ma’am” before turning to rejoin Beatrice. The whole bizarre exchange left Glenn a bit baffled, but he figured it was best not to ask what it was about, at least not at the moment, and just carry on as though he hadn’t noticed. 

Once in the hallway Glenn turned to leave the way they’d entered, but was stopped by a sharp tug on his arm. “No, I don’t want to go out there, I don’t want to see that army again. The roof can be accessed from that stairwell over there. We can get just as much air up there as we can on the ground, we just won’t have as much company while we do it.”

Whole heartedly, Glenn replied “Gladly”, he didn’t want to lay eyes on that throng of Provident soldiers again any more than she did. 

As they walked down the hall toward the stairwell, he could hear the sound of booted footsteps coming from behind them. He turned to see two soldiers following them. One of them was the apologetic soldier who had helped Clem up earlier. Realizing she’d drawn their attention, the soldier sheepishly explained “Sorry, there’s one of us assigned to shadow each of you. I’m assigned to Clementine and he’s assigned to you.” The young soldier trotted to catch up to them and once beside them added “Were not all like Beatrice ya’know. You met Minister Stock, he’s nice. More of us are like him than her.” 

Once they passed through the stairwell door, she fell in line behind Clementine as they made their ascent up the stairs. “I’m sorry, I really am. What she said about you, it wasn’t right. The amazing stuff you’ve done, all the people you’ve helped, you deserve better than that. I know that you’re a hero, but up north, they made us burn our books about you. They’ve labeled you wicked. But I remember… I remember the stories my mom would read to me, about how you’d…” 

Clem coldly cut her off. “How old are you, girl?” 

Startled, the soldier replied “I’m seventeen ma’am”. 

Clem continued icily “You must’ve lived a pretty sheltered life to be this naïve at seventeen. Let me guess, you grew up hearing stories about me, how I’d take on whole armies armed with just a spork or some crap like that, and you wanted to ask me what it was like or how I did it. Well, I hate to break it to you, but Beatrice was right. Those stories, they’re ninety-nine percent bullshit! Stuff like that just never happens; no one person ever defeats an army, the gunslinger doesn’t mosey down main street to have a showdown with the bad guys, the cavalry doesn’t show up in the nick of time to save the settlers, no knight in shining armor ever comes charging to the rescue, and the biggest pile of crap of all is the noble sacrifice. Dead is just dead, there’s nothing noble about it. All of that stuff is just fantasy nonsense. I can’t even begin to describe to you the amount of impossible shit I’ve heard attributed to me, stuff that’s not even remotely true. Oh, and you know that little one percent kernel of truth, the part that isn’t bullshit? That’s the part where I got a bunch of good people killed by being stupid. So let’s just drop it before we dredge up some pretty fucked up memories, OK?”

They ascended a whole flight of stairs in silence before the soldier worked up the courage to speak again. “I was going to ask you about rescuing AJ from the ranch, that one was always my favorite. I always wished someone would love me enough to do something like that for me… especially now. Was that just a bunch of lies?” 

Incredulous, Clem answered “Jeez, what part of drop it don’t you… urrgghh... It depends on what version you heard. If you heard a version where AJ had been adopted by a nice lady who loved him and was taking really good care of him until I shot her in the face and took him back, then no, that one’s not a lie, you got the real story. Any other version was BS.” 

Glenn glanced back at the soldier, expecting to see a look of shock in response to Clem’s gruff reply. Instead he saw an expression more akin to pity. 

They continued on in silence until half way up the final flight of stairs, where Clem stopped and turned to speak to soldier. “Look, these people, they’re going to be the death of you. They’re gonna keep picking fights until they run into someone who actually fights back, and when they do, it’s not going to go the way they imagine it. Their army is big and very well equipped, but just spending a few hours around them, I can tell they don’t have a clue what to do beyond looking scary. Once someone bloodies their nose, they’re going to go down in a heap, and you don’t want to be with them when that happens. Get out! Just…Just walk away. Like now, while they think you’re up here with me. Just walk into the woods and keep going. If they spot you, you can say you went to fetch me a walking stick or something.” She addressed the soldier who had been assigned to Glenn “You won’t turn her in, will you?” His eye bulged for a moment, then he shook his head. “See, he’s on your side. Now’s your chance. This life isn’t for you. Go while you still can.” 

The girl shook her head and responded in a tone of desperate resignation “Don’t you think I know that already? I know I’m not cut out to be a soldier. Do you think someone like me joins up willingly? I’m a conscript. So’s he. They snatched me out of Salem. He’s from Bangor. These sick cultist bastards know how to stop deserters. If they catch us, they execute us, only they don’t call it that, they call it ‘mercy’. If they don’t catch us, they go after our family, and if they’re lucky, they’re given ‘mercy’. More likely they’ll get hauled off to the Ministry of Guidance and be given ‘grace’. That’s where they torture you until all you do is repeat their slogans. They have no qualms about doing it to people, either. I was at Allentown. Someone there just took a few potshots at us, so when it was over they rounded up all the survivors and sent them off to the Ministry. They sentenced a whole town to it for fuck’s sake… So I can’t just walk away, no matter how much I want to. Not when I know what will happen to everyone I love if I do.” It was Clem’s turn to give a look of pity. She shook her head, and beckoned for them to follow as she made her way up the last few steps to the roof.

The sky was clear, and it took a moment for Glenn’s eyes to adjust to the sunlight, but once they did, he could see the roof was in a sorry state. Someone had made it their home and had left various bits of debris scattered about. Instinctively, all four of them began to examine what had been left behind, trying to figure out what sort of life someone had made for themselves in this place. Glenn found some corroded shell casings, and looked around for what the person might have been shooting at, but was left at a loss since he couldn’t see any remains on the roof. The soldier who’d been shadowing him came over to examine Glenn’s find, gave a half smile and shrugged, after which Glenn returned the casings to where he’d found them. 

Clem’s shadow had picked up a frame that contained a badly faded picture, while Clem stood over a broken mirror. Still studying the picture, the girl asked “Clementine, the people who first started spreading your tale, they must have thought you were a good person, otherwise, why would they have bothered. And all those people who heard those tales and repeated them, well as one of those people I can tell you, I thought the person they were describing must be amazing… How is it that someone so many people can see so much good in can hate herself as much as you do?” 

Clementine bent down to pick up a shard of the mirror, stood, and held it in front of her face. “I wish I could see myself the way you do, I really do… Look, I wouldn’t go so far as to say I hate myself, but I know me. I know what I’ve done… and I know why.” 

She stood silently, as if in a moment of deep introspection, but something didn’t seem right. It was the shard, the reflective surface was facing away from her. She wasn’t pondering, she was angling the mirror to signal someone. Glenn compared the position of the sun to the angle of the mirror and tried to guess roughly where the person Clementine was signaling might be. They’d be somewhere in the woods, on a hill to the north. As he scanned the tree line for the sort of movement that would indicate the presence of a person, a sudden jolt swept through the forest, causing the trees to shudder in unison. A moment later, a sound like rumbling thunder could be heard crackling overhead. 

Glenn looked at the two soldiers, only to find them scanning the sky. He then looked back at Clementine to find her staring at him. In a tone that sounded more like an order than a suggestion, she said “I need to sit down for a little while. That looks like a good spot. You should join me.” She was pointing, but his eyes hadn’t followed. He was still looking back at the trees. His mind was racing, processing what he’d just witnessed. He knew it’d been some sort of explosion. He knew she’d caused it. He knew that they were surrounded by an army of potentially hostile soldiers. He knew that two of those soldiers were just a few feet away, He knew that they were armed while he wasn't… He knew that he was fucked! 

Seeing that he’d vapor locked, Clem grabbed him by the arm and growled “Sit with me” then moved him in the direction of the stairwell. The sound of thunder had given way to a crackling cacophony, like the sound of an endless rockslide that kept getting closer. She planted him on an air duct that ran along the side of the stair well entrance, then sat down next to him and hunched over, while placing her right hand inside the dossier she still had tucked under her left arm.

The soldiers frantically searched for the source of the din. In frustration Clem’s shadow demanded “What is that?” 

Ignoring the soldier, Clem muttered one word to Glenn: “Brace”. Glenn looked over at her. While he was so scared that he was shaking, aside from a few strands of grey hair fluttering in the wind, Clementine was completely still. Her expression was one of extreme focus. She'd been in situations like this too many times.

The young soldier leveled her weapon at Clementine and yelled “What the hell is going on?” 

The building lurched, knocking Glenn sideways toward the spot where Clem had been sitting, but she was no longer there. He managed to catch himself before his face slammed into the duct, then heard four shots fired in rapid succession. He looked up to see Clementine positioned on her left knee with her right foot planted in front of her, the dossier scattered on the ground next to her, and a pistol held in a two handed grip at her eye level. The soldier who had been assigned to be his shadow lay motionless in front of her, while Clementine’s shadow lay gasping and clawing at the ground by his side. The jolt must have knocked them off their feet, and Clementine had shot them before they could recover. 

Clem stood and walked over to the girl who a few minutes earlier had been gushing admiration for her. She took aim at the young soldier's head but hesitated. She looked away and Glen could see a pained look on her face, but it only lasted a moment. Her expression quickly steeled. She turned her gaze back to the wounded girl, reacquired her aim, and fired, rendering her as motionless as her companion.

Clementine walked away, holding her palms to her temples. After a few seconds of aimless pacing, she looked at the pistol as though she’d forgotten it was still in her hand, then pocketed it, and trotted to the stairwell with only a hint of a limp to her gait.

Glenn sat where she’d left him, he didn’t need to look to know what’d happened. He could hear the water rushing around the building and the debris crashing against it. He could feel the moisture spraying over him. She’d blown a dam and flooded the town. He knew that if he could feel the spray this high up, the situation below had to be pretty bad. He didn’t even entertain the thought that any of the people he’d left on the ground floor had survived.

From inside the stairwell he could hear her frantic footsteps. What did she have to be frantic about at this point, hadn’t she already killed pretty much everyone? He heard her call out a name: “Mitch!” She repeated the name several times before eventually giving up and releasing an angry stream of “Fucks”, accompanied by the sound of dull, wet thuds on the reinforced concrete wall behind him. He wasn’t surprised at all when she emerged from the stairwell with bloody knuckles. Now it was his turn to glare at her.

He found himself yelling “Veronica Rogers! Bill Noth! Sarah Flores! Robin Martin! You may not have cared about your people but I cared about mine! Should I tell you about the families they left behind, or would I be wasting my breath?” 

She didn’t hesitate to lay into him “You want to talk about family? I just killed a man I helped raise! Mitch was like a son to me, so don’t give me that shit about not caring about my people! You’re sitting in his place! You’re alive because he isn’t!” She tucked her chin to her chest, closed her eyes tight, grabbed handfuls of hair above her ears, and pulled in frustration. Her voice settled a bit. “No, no, even if I had picked him, she would have still pulled him away… then you’d both be dead…” She released her hair and twisted her gaze. With venom in her voice she added “Ohhh, I owe her a place on my wall.” 

He should have been curious to know what she meant, but he was too angry to care. He just wanted her to hurt as much as he did at that moment. “What about the others? There was twelve of you. You, Mitch, and ten more. What about them? Did you care about them?” 

She looked puzzled for a moment, then realized his confusion. “Mitch wasn’t with the delegation, he was the Minister of Logistics, um, Stock was the name he used. James Stock… Oh god, Mitch, stocks and bonds, were you trying to be obvious?” 

Glenn let out a “huh?” 

Clem explained “Ian Flemming…. I taught Mitch to read… I taught pretty much all of the kids his age to read… He loved Ian Flemming books, not just the fictional ones, he ate up anything by him and about him. When we ran out of Ian Flemming stuff, he started devouring anything spy related. It was like he was born for this. And as usual I fucked it up… I got him killed… Now Ruby’s gonna kill me… if I’m lucky.” 

Since he didn’t know who Ian Flemming or Ruby were, her explanation didn’t help much, all it did was let him know that there was eleven people he should be asking about. “Ok, there was thirteen of you. What about the other eleven?” 

Her eyes narrowed with hate when she answered “They wanted to surrender! They were afraid and that fear was spreading to their people. I couldn’t let that continue. When we formed our union, their people became my people, I had to protect them, even from their own leaders. The Provident would have sucked us dry, stealing our food, our labor, even our people. We had to resist! There was no real choice. If I had allowed fear to take hold, it would never let go. It would’ve sapped our will to fight. The only way to stop that from happening was to free them from the source. Those eleven delegates were the worst sort of collaborators. They were willing to sacrifice their people just to protect their own asses. Leaving them to die was an easy decision.”

Glenn shook his head “Oh bullshit! You know damn well I would’ve surrendered too, that I was just as afraid as anyone down there, but here I am. No, this wasn’t some noble ploy to save your people. You just saw an opportunity to get rid of a few rivals while looking like a hero and you took it.” 

The soldier who had been shadowing Glenn began to stir. Calmly, Clem took the pistol out of her pocket, shot him in the head, ejected the magazine to check to see how many rounds she had left, reinserted it, returned the pistol to her pocket, then picked up the argument as though there’d been no interruption. While she was checking the magazine, Glenn became aware of the sound of gunfire around them. He realized that there was fighting going on nearby. 

“You’re still alive because I need you. The Provident are going to know who did this. They’re going to come after me with whatever they have left. I’m counting on it. My plan was to draw them into the hills, where my people would have the advantage. I figured it’d take a while, but we’d eventually wear them down. I wouldn’t’ve guessed they’d try to take us both on at once. The arrogant bastards have given us an opportunity to end this quickly. When they get bogged down attacking me, you can strike at their heart”

Incredulous, he asked “What about Veronica, Sarah, Bill, and Robin? Didn’t you need them too?” 

She cocked her head and answered, “It would‘ve looked suspicious if I’d asked all of you to help me up the stairs, now, wouldn’t it. I picked you for the same reason the Provident did; you have a name, one that carries with it one helluva reputation. You may not have earned that reputation, but it’s on you just the same. The Provident wanted to make you their puppet, so they could use that name for propaganda purposes. I just want your help making sure they can’t hurt anyone else.” 

“Is that why they asked for you? So they could…” 

She interrupted him “They didn’t ask for me, they asked for AJ. That’s probably why they had that card on the table. He actually likes the name. They were probably going to try to turn him, like they were going to turn you. What do you think that promise to cure your father was about? They’d eventually realize that AJ couldn’t be turned, then they’d just make him disappear. They probably figured they wouldn’t have to worry about the Rangers if he was out of the picture.”

“So you came here and he stayed back to guard your precious hills? Is that it? Didn’t you think they’d have a problem with that?” 

She gestured toward the sound of gunfire and displayed a devilish grin. “Oh, he’s here too. Who do you think blew the dam? He’s out there now, mopping up the stragglers... The Provident are basically raiders. The largest and best equipped gang of raiders we’ve ever faced, but still just raiders, and the Rangers, they hunt raiders wherever they can find them. Right now they’re sweeping the banks for survivors, making sure none of this lot can threaten anyone ever again.” She allowed her grin to fade before continuing “I figured The Provident would accept his absence, considering who they were getting in his place. Look, I had to be here. The plan we came up with to get Mitch out was the one I used to get you to the roof. I figured you didn’t know what was coming, and Mitch’s clever… I thought he’d find a way… but it’s not just that I had to be here for him. I had to be here for my people. I’m going to be leading them into war. I can’t be there with them on the front lines, not anymore. My leg makes me a liability, I know that. But this, this was something I could do. This was my one chance to be there for them. I had to make it clear to them that I was out in front, that I’m willing to take on as much risk for this fight as they’ll be taking.”

“So, you being here was mostly for show? Kind of like what the Provident were doing with all the soldiers they had lined up, or was it just, I don’t know, some bravado thing? Did you just kill four of my people to show off how much of a badass you are?”

“Oh fuck you! This isn’t a trial and you’re not here to judge me! If you want to know what would’ve happened to our people if we’d surrendered, just take a look at her.” She gestured toward the young soldier who’d been shadowing her. “Picture your sister’s kid there, because that’s what’ll happen if you let The Provident take over! They’ll take your kids and throw them at someone like me, or maybe worse, they might steal enough kids from enough people to think they can take on a serious meat grinder like Cascadia! Hell, even all broken up, what’s left of The Commonwealth could’ve chewed this sorry bunch to bits.” 

It was the old for-the-children copout, the mark of a true politician. Arguing with her was pointless, she’d have an excuse or a rationalization for anything he could throw at her. Worse than that, she might even be right… about some of it at least. 

He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the wall of the stairwell. Wearily, he pointed out “You didn’t have to kill her, you know. She might’ve helped us.” 

He could hear her walk over and pick up the papers that had spilled out of the dossier. Calmly she replied “What about him?” 

Glenn opened his eyes and let out a “Huh?” 

She assumed her teacher’s voice and asked “Think this through, kid, what did we know about him?” 

Glenn tried to recall what the young man had said and couldn’t remember hearing his voice even once. “Just that she said he was a conscript from Bangor.” 

“Based on that, do you think he would have helped us?”

“No.”

“What do you think he would have done once he realized what’d happened?”

“I don’t know, arrested us? Taken us to his commander?”

“How calm were you when you realized I’d killed four of your people?”

“He would’ve shot us.”

“Yup. So I had to shoot him first. Now, what do you think her reaction would’ve been when she saw me shoot him?”

“I think you’ve made your point.” He was tired of arguing, and generally tired of her company. He closed his eyes again and dully asked “How much longer are we going to be stuck up here?”

Matter-of-factly she answered “Until the Saltlick Reservoir finishes draining.”

“How long will that take?”

She busied herself rearranging the papers in the dossier while answering “Dunno, I’ve never blown a dam before. This isn’t the first time this town’s been flooded but the accounts I read never mentioned how long the floods lasted, they just said how many people died, how much damage was done, and who got in trouble for it. Going by the numbers though, we may be here a while. The first flood, was 14 million gallons, the second was 128 million… The reservoir we just blew, it held 900 million.”

This got his attention. He opened his eyes and sat up. His voice cracked as he exclaimed “Holy shit! What were you thinking?”

Cooly, she answered “Hey, it was either the Saltlick or the Hinckston Run Reservoir, which is even bigger. It holds a billion gallons. I figured it was better to drop the Saltlick on ‘em.”

“You know we’re in the middle of this, right?” he protested “How do you know this building will hold up?”

“She shrugged and replied “I don’t, I just saw pictures of the aftermath of the other floods. Most of the buildings survived. I figured this building is a lot newer than they were, if the old buildings held up, this one should too. And Mitch made sure this was the building we’d be coming to.”

She finished reassembling the dossier and began pacing between the stairwell and the center of the roof while browsing through it. 

Curiously, but with a hint of incredulity, he pointed out “Looks like your leg’s feeling better?”

Without looking up, she answered “Didn’t hurt to begin with, I just said that to get you up here… I guess no one noticed I’d said I run with this thing. My morning jog is longer than that walk was.”

“I did catch that, I just figured you meant running to safety, like, away from walkers or something. You seriously run just for fun?”

She smiled “It was running I missed, not getting chased.” Her smile faded and her gaze grew distant. “Yeah, I run every day, and considering what it cost me to be able to run again, I’m damn well gonna do it as much as I possibly can.”

He paused, waiting for her to elaborate, then prompted “Are you going to make me ask?”

Without looking up, she replied “No, I know the question, so here’s an answer: Soccer, I played forward. I was sooo fast, but my ball handling skills were, um, I suppose average for an eight year old, and by that I mean really bad.”

He shot her a look of irritation. “I don’t know what question you were answering but it wasn’t the one I was thinking of.”

“I know, but I won’t be answering that one.”

His curiosity unbearably piqued, sarcastically he asked “What, did you have to trade your first born for it or something?”

Keeping her expression stone-faced and her eyes on the dossier she answered “No, just my heart. It was supposed to be a surprise anniversary gift, and it was...a surprise that is…” She looked up and put on a forced smile, while sorrow shown through her eyes. “Surprise, you’re a widow, again, but here’s that fancy new leg you’ve been pining for…” The forced smile disappeared but the sorrow remained. “Do you get now why I wanted to change the subject?”

He lowered his gaze and let out a weak “Sorry”

She shrugged, turned her eyes back toward the documents, sighed, and replied “I’m used to it.”

Somewhat worried about what part of their exchange she meant she was used to, he asked about the most benign part he could recall. “Used to people asking about your leg?”

She briefly turned up one corner of her mouth and answered “Used to everyone I love dying… All but AJ… I’m beginning to think Death’s afraid of AJ. I can’t say I blame Death. AJ and I owe him an ass kicking for everyone he’s taken from us.”

Thoroughly depressed, and now finding himself feeling a bit sorry for this person who minutes earlier he thought he’d hated, he attempted to oblige her request to change the subject. He gestured toward the dossier and asked “Anything good in that?”

“I think so. Most of it’s in a code I can’t understand but this one has a bit I can make sense of. It looks like records of supply shipments. The numbers don’t mean much to me but it’s got columns full of location names. Three come up a lot; London, Springfield, and Manitoulin. I think there’s a New London in Connecticut, every state seems to have a Springfield, and I have no clue about Manitoulin but it seems to come up the most.” 

She closed the file and looked up at Glenn “I don’t think I’m gonna get much more out of this at the moment.” She walked over and handed the file to Glenn, then walked to the far end of the roof, where she proceeded to sift through several piles of debris. When she returned, she had 2 sealed glass bottles, 2 tin cups, and a sealed jar with her. She sat down on the duct leaving enough space between them to spread out her haul.

With a somewhat worried look on his face, Glenn blurted “I wouldn’t trust those, who knows how many years they’ve been there?”

“About a month” was Clem’s reply, as she opened one of the bottles and used a small amount of the water it contained to rinse the dust out of each of the cups. “My people left these up here when they planted the mirror.” She filled both cups and pushed one toward him, then opened the jar, shook a few pink bricks into her hand, and offered him some.

“What’s that?”

“Pemmican.”

“Ok? Still, what’s that?”

“Powdered meat mixed with fat. It’s kind of like jerky.”

He gave his head a quick shake. “How do you powder…Wouldn’t jerky be easier?”

“Yeah, but my old teeth can’t handle jerky anymore, so we stashed this. Chances are, we’ll be spending the night up here. You’ll probably be hungry before it’s over, and this is all we’ve got. Do you want some or not?”

He set the file down and accepted a few of the bricks. Cautiously he ate a bite. It wasn’t something he’d normally choose to eat, but given the circumstances he wasn’t going to turn it down. Politely, he ate the rest of the bricks she’d offered him. Thinking ahead to nightfall, he asked “Did you by any chance stash some blankets up here too?”

“Nope, I just had the good sense to dress warm. You need to learn to layer, kid. I’ve always got at least 3; cotton, Kevlar, and wool. Today I went heavy on the wool because, well, I knew what was going to happen.” She then cinched up her long buckskin coat and added “Oh, and uh, no, I won’t be loaning you my coat. I did a lifetime’s worth of shivering by the time I was your age, it’s someone else’s turn.” She punctuated the last few words by pointing at Glenn.

Glenn looked at her sideways. He hadn’t even considered asking her for her coat. A quick scan of the roof yielded nothing he could use to keep warm. That left sheltering within the building. He’d still be cold, but it would be better than nothing. He got up, brushed his hands on his pants, and stepped into the stairwell to see how high up the water came.

Clem called after him “Did you bring a light with you? Because I didn’t.” He didn’t need to ask what she meant by that. With the electricity out, the stairwell had no active light source, all it had was a few small windows that didn’t let in a whole lot of light during the daytime. At night the only part that would receive enough moonlight from the roof access door to be safe to traverse would be the uppermost landing and the top flight of stairs. So, the upper landing it was, that’s where he’d shelter for the night…great.

He peered over the railing near the door to see if he could spot the water. As far as he could tell, it was around three quarters of the way up the second floor stairs. He pulled back from the rail and turned to head down to the landing but paused as a bit of color caught his eye. It was the blood Clem had left on the concrete wall when she’d punched it earlier. His dad had taught him enough about fighting that he knew you had to build up bone density over time before you could land a punch without breaking your hand. Judging from the way she’d handled the pistol, she hadn’t broken anything when she did this. Clearly, this sort of thing was nothing new to her.

Finding nothing particularly interesting on the landing, he returned to the roof to find that Clem was now sitting near the edge. He walked over to join her and noticed her hand slowly moving to the pocket she kept the pistol in. It shouldn’t have been a surprise that she didn’t trust him. Approaching her from behind had been a mistake, especially considering where she was sitting. He stopped, and stood still for a moment. Without saying a word, she simply pointed to a spot several feet away where he could sit to look over the edge too. He gave her a wide berth as he proceeded to where she’d indicated, then sat down. 

They spent the next several hours watching over the side of the building, periodically pointing out recognizable bits of debris they spotted in the water. When the sky began to dim, Glenn took that as his cue to make his way to the shelter of the landing, where he simply huddled in the corner. The last thing he remembered before he fell asleep was thinking that there was no way he’d be able to sleep knowing there was debris crashing into the building below.

***

He startled awake to the sound of his own name echoing in the enclosed space of the stairwell and quickly got to his feet. Seeing that he was awake, Clem beckoned “Hey, c’mere. Check this out.” He joined her on the roof. It was barely dawn. She pointed to a building near the edge of town and said “Look over there.” In the distance he could see a group of people mulling around on the roof of a partially collapsed building. On the ground below, he saw three figures with four horses, all dressed in green. She explained “That’s the building they took our coachmen to. Look, the water’s receded from around it. I saw one of the Rangers head in a moment ago. Just watch.” Sure enough, a Ranger appeared atop the pile of rubble where the stairway had been. She leapt from the rubble to a broken section of brickwork, which she was able to climb to get to the roof. After a bit of handshakes and hugging, Glenn watched as she anchored her rope and assisted the coachmen to the ground. He counted ten of them plus the Rangers. All of the coachmen had survived. He considered chiding Clem about how her coachman was clever enough to find a ruse that would get all of them to the roof while Clem only managed to save him, but decided against it.

Almost jubilant, she stepped to the edge to look at the water. “It shouldn’t be long now, the Saltlick must be almost empty.”

Curiously he asked “Why would they name a reservoir ‘Saltlick’?”

She smiled and replied “I don’t know. Why don’t you go taste some of the water and find out?”

Sensing a trap, he cocked an eyebrow and answered “I’ll pass.”

He watched as the water’s edge crept closer to their building. The gunfire was now sporadic. The Rangers must have run low on Provident to chase down. It occurred to him that if the young soldier who’d been shadowing Clementine had taken her advice and run off into the woods, she still wouldn’t have survived. The Rangers didn’t appear to be taking any prisoners. He considered pointing this out to Clem but once again decided to keep it to himself.

Eventually, the water receded enough that the Rangers could make their approach. Their progress was slowed by the thick layer of debris that had accumulated in the street, which had forced them to dismount and travel by foot. Several made their way into the lobby. After a few minutes, the sound of gunfire could be heard echoing through the stairwell. “Walkers” Clem surmised. It wasn’t long before boots could be heard coming up the stairs. As the sound neared, Clem called out “Come on up Jess, it’s safe.” 

From within the stairwell came a reply “How’d you know it’s me?”

Clem answered “I’d know those footsteps anywhere. When I hear them coming it means my time with Lee is up.”

A moment later a woman with a lever action rifle slung across her back emerged from the stairwell. She wore an odd looking armored vest over her forest green uniform. It had multiple overlapping pockets that gave it a laminar appearance and had writing on it in a language Glenn hadn’t seen before. It looked kind of like English, but in particular he noticed that the R’s were backwards. He noticed that three of the pockets were flattened and had had round jagged holes torn in them.

She glanced around, and when she spotted Clem, she smiled and exclaimed “Hi, mom!” Clem closed the distance rapidly, not bothering to slow down before embracing her, causing the woman to rock back and take a step to catch her balance. The momentum caused her long black braid to flair out, giving Glenn a glimpse of the dozens of small scraps of cloth she’d woven into it. Jessica chuckled at the greeting she’d received and announced “It’s good to see you too.” 

Clem looked down, squeezing her eyes tightly as she did. She managed to croak out an “I” but that’s as far as she got.

Realizing Clem was in distress, Jessi tucked her head down next to Clem’s and in a soothing West Virginia drawl explained “I know. I know, you don’t have to say it. We found him on the way in.”

Her voice cracking, Clem asked “Alive?”

Somberly Jessi answered “No, he’d turned. I had to put him down.”

Clem pulled her head back to look up at the sky. With a pained expression, she exclaimed “Oh god Jess, what am I gonna tell Ruby?”

Jessi reassured her “I’ll talk to Ruby.”

Clem shook her head “No, I can’t let you do that. It’s got to be me.”

“Well, now, when I get to her first, I can say you told me not to, but I’m gonna do it anyway.” She looked back toward the stairwell and reminded Clem “I know you need this, but we can’t stay here. It’s time we get moving. I know better than to tell you it’ll be OK. It never is. It’ll just be what it is. No sense in dwelling on it. You just gotta keep moving.”

Clem reluctantly released her embrace, sniffled, and asked “Is that something I taught you?”

Jess replied “yup.”

Clem chuckled. “God damn I’m an idiot.” She quickly ran her thumb and forefinger over the inner canthus of each eye, shook her head, and conceded “OK… let’s get going” and made her way into the stairwell.

Jessi paused before following and gave Glenn a once over. Cautiously she asked “Clem, who’s the kid?”

Clem shot back “That’s Rick Grimes’s grandson. I’m sure he has his own name, I just can’t remember it at the moment.”

He looked at Jess and sheepishly offered “It’s Glenn.”

Jess nodded and gave a half smile before issuing a “Nice ta meetcha, Glenn” then made an after-you gesture toward the stairwell.

The stairwell was dim but navigable due to the light streaming through the small windows. The hallway on the first floor, however, had gone completely dark. One of the Rangers produced a small lantern, which he promptly lit. The water in the hall was less than ankle deep but still moving enough to give Clem trouble. This time however, it was Jessica’s arm she grabbed to keep herself steady.

Halfway down the hall, Clem ordered “Take me to him.”

Jessi replied, “We didn’t just leave him there, he’s probably at camp by now. They might’ve even shrouded him already. Besides, I don’t think you want to see the way he ended up.”

Clem countered “I want to see where he died… I want to know… I want to know what I did.”

Patiently, Jess answered “Alright, but it’s pretty bad in there, he wasn’t alone.” She led them to the kitchen, which looked like it had been put through a giant blender. Pots, pans, utensils, and body parts were scattered everywhere. “There’s a bunch of bits and pieces all around in this part so watch your step, there might still be some heads that’ll try to give you a chomp. We heard Mitch in there.” She pointed to a large metal door that had been partially broken off of its hinges. “Him and a few others. The door was kinda closed but as you can see, the upper hinge busted loose. Best guess is he drowned.” 

She motioned for the Ranger with the lantern to lead the way, and the rest followed him in. On the floor lay several walkers, each with a part of their heads’ missing. “It’s a walk in freezer.” Clem volunteered. “Probably the sturdiest place down here. He almost pulled it off…” 

Glenn walked in and gasped. The others who had been in the freezer with Mitch were the Virginia delegates. Mitch’s last act had been to try to save them. Clem caught on after hearing Glenn’s reaction and told the Rangers “We’ll need to recover these bodies too, they’re his people. When the wagons arrive, one of them is his, you can load them onto it.” Her order elicited a “can-do” from one of the Rangers.

As they exited the freezer, Clem caught the attention of the Ranger with the lantern and asked “Can I borrow that for a bit?” He obliged her request and she proceeded to walk around the kitchen, holding onto various objects for balance while examining them high and low. Eventually she called Jessi over to give her a hand. When they returned, Jess was holding a head whose jaw was still moving. Clem held the lantern up so Glenn could get a good look at what remained of Sister Beatrice’s face. “I guess she just couldn’t leave Mitch alone, so she spent her last moment swirling around in here. Now she’s going to be just one more reminder not to fuck with me, mounted above my gate.” Jess pulled out her knife and rendered the head safe by removing the jaw and remaining teeth before inserting it into a sack.

Clem gave the Ranger back his lantern and they made their way to the street. Once outside, Clem climbed onto Jessi’s back and allowed her to carry her past the worst of the debris field. Glenn marveled at the amount of debris that had awaited them. He’d expected to spot a number of bodies among the debris, but surprisingly he didn’t see a single one until they reached the edge of town, where the Rangers had been picking off survivors. He wondered how far away the waters had swept them and who would have to deal with all those walkers, wherever they ended up. He was also impressed by how many buildings were still standing considering what had just happened. It was as Clem had predicted; just like the older buildings had withstood the previous floods, the current buildings had withstood this one.

As they were led into the Ranger camp, Glenn spotted a group of Rangers conferring around a table under a shelter. One of the Rangers motioned toward Glenn’s group, after which they cleared away, leaving just one behind at the table. Glenn felt a hand on his shoulder holding him back, as Clem proceeded on alone. “Best to give them a moment of privacy” Jess explained.

“Is that your brother, AJ?” Glenn asked.

“No, that’s my husband, AJ” was her reply.

Glenn gave her a look of confusion. “Didn’t you call her mom?”

Jess tilted her head and answered “Huh? Oh, that! Well somebody has to, she’s earned it! And for some reason AJ doesn’t. I figure being her daughter-in-law means I get to call her that every now and then... sorta.”

“You never asked why he never calls her mom?”

“I figure he’ll tell me when he’s ready. If not, I don’t need to know. I have my guesses. I know she’s not his real mom. Knowing her, she probably told him not to. Probably didn’t feel worthy for some reason or another. I tell you, that woman, she founded a city, the biggest I’ve seen outside the ruins, and to meet her you’d think she thought herself a failure. All she can see are the little things she got wrong. She’ll act strong around other people, but you get her alone, all the insecurities come bubbling out.”

Glenn had noticed Clem’s self-denigration, but he also recognized that not all of her wrongs had been so little. “Yeah, I caught a bit of that on the roof. So it wasn’t just a bad day for her? Because it sure as hell was a bad day for me.”

“I don’t know what she said to you up there, but if she was down on herself, picked herself apart, that’s normal for her. Make no mistake, you spent a day in the presence of greatness… just don’t let her convince you otherwise.”

He wondered how Clem would react to being called “greatness”. He couldn’t imagine she’d be comfortable with it… or it could’ve just been he was just projecting his own discomfort onto her, given his family background and the attention he’d received because of it. “So, you’ve known them a long time?”

“You could say that. My mom and I were residents numbers nineteen and twenty of Fort Texas. That was back when we actually lived inside the fort, before Everett had started to spring up around it. I was around six at the time. AJ and I, we kinda shared the same interests; hunting, fishing, killing raiders, that sort of thing.” She chuckled “Yeah, we’re both the same kind of messed up. AJ had the whole thing with The Delta and McCarroll Ranch, while my mom and I were the only survivors of a raid on our homestead. I won’t saddle you with the details, but those raiders killed everyone my ma and I left behind. All of them. Now that’s what I do to every raider and bandit I find. All of them. Ain’t no better than they deserve. Hell, for a lot of them, a bullet is far too kind. But I’m not like them, Glenn, I don’t believe in making my prey suffer. I’ll leave their suffering up the Almighty. I just make sure they ain’t late showing up for judgement.” Glenn noticed a change in tone over the course of her explanation as her veneer of southern charm gave way to reveal her underlying seething pool of hatred. Evidently, no matter how many raiders she made pay for the day her home was attacked, the wound it had left on her psyche would never be healed.

“Is that why I don’t see any prisoners?”

“The old Texas Rangers might’ve taken prisoners. They were out for justice. We don’t kid ourselves, we’re just a bunch of pissed off settlers out for revenge. The ones who joined us in the beginning, they’d all lost loved ones to raiders and just wanted to make someone hurt. We don’t take prisoners, we never did. We just leave heads on posts. When we started doing it, it wasn’t about sending a message, we did it because we were angry, but it sent a powerful message none the less. Raiders already steered clear of Everett because word had spread about what Clem did to The Delta and The New Frontier, but when we started taking the fight to them, they abandoned our forest altogether. When the other settlements in Appalachia heard about what we’d accomplished, they started asking for our help. We ended up leaving our grim totems all across these hills. It’s kinda weird to think of it, but that’s what our union was founded on, a bunch of severed heads.”

The mental image of the heads seemed familiar, like something from the stories his dad had told him when he was a child. Disturbed by what he was hearing, Glenn redirected “I think you kinda described how the original Texas Rangers got started. Well the pissed off settlers fighting against raiders part, not the heads on posts part.”

She grinned and replied “There’s a bit more to it than that but you’re close enough I’ll give you credit. No need to repeat Ms. Clementine’s history class for you.”

“Ms. Clementine? So when she mentioned teaching all the kids to read, it was like a formal thing?”

“Oh yeah. I’ve seen old world signs that said ‘I’d rather be fishing’. Well, Clem’s sign would be ‘I’d rather be teaching’. That was her happy place. She’d tell us how much she loved school as a kid and how if she hadn’t had a great teacher herself she wouldn’t be alive today. She even named the town after him. She argued that education had to be the cornerstone upon which our society was founded, that it would eventually give us an edge over everyone else. And considering she was still recovering from the loss of her leg back then, it just seemed to make sense for her to focus on teaching. We built a schoolhouse for her and everything… well, there’s several now, but hers was the first.”

“Why Ms. Clementine? Why not Ms. Crawford?”

“She stopped using it. She explained it to me once. I get it, I’m not sure anyone else would, but I do. Her parents were on vacation visiting her grampa when the world changed. The way she describes him, he sounds like a mean sombitch. She hated having to see him so her parents didn’t make her come. She blames him for their deaths. What’s worse, when she went after them, she found that he’d done some pretty horrific shit after the fall, stuff that made her embarrassed to be associated with him. Their name meant a lot to him, he had some sort of business, loved to plaster it all over the place, even lived in a part of town named after one of their ancestors. So, out of spite for him, she dumped it. In her mind, she became just ‘Clementine’. Even after she got hitched, she stuck to just using the one name. Habit I guess. AJ didn’t even know her last name until I told him I wanted to take his when we got married. Turns out he didn’t have one either. Neither of them knew what his parents’ last name was, so he decided to assume hers, and she was kind enough to let us in on what it was. After that, the cat was out of the bag so to speak.”

“Does she still teach?”

“Sort of, it’s more like a hobby now. She fills in every now and then but she doesn’t have much time for it, not since she was elected Everett’s representative to the union. They’ve been running her ragged. Same with her role on the town council, she doesn’t have much time for it either. She’s had to turn most of her local leadership duties over to the other members. It was either that or cut back on the time she spends with Lee, and she wasn’t about to do that.”

Glenn noticed the sound of wagons approaching. Seeing his attention shift, Jessi chimed in “I hear ‘em too. Sounds like your ride’s here.” She looked over at Clem and AJ “I suspect they’ll be at it a while longer. AJ doesn’t want to stay back with Lee, and he knows I won’t, but Clem ain’t gonna quit neither. It’s a whole unstoppable force versus two immovable objects situation.” 

She flagged down a Ranger. “Ranger Allen, I need someone to show Mr. Grimes here to the wagon Clem promised him. He’ll have some precious cargo he needs loaded up before he leaves and I believe there’s two more members of his party, a couple coachmen was it? He’ll need to be reunited with them as well. Do you by any chance have a moment to see to it this all gets done while I go rescue my man from his mom?” The Ranger replied “can do”. 

Jess turned back to Glenn and said “Well, Rick Grimes’s grandson who happens to have his own name, which unlike my mother-in-law I can remember is Glenn, it’s been good meetin’ ya. Just wish it was under more pleasant circumstances. You’re welcome to stay if you like, although, given the nature of your cargo, I’ll understand if you choose not to stick around. I’ll leave you in the capable hands of Ranger Allen, here. She’ll take good care of you. Oh, and if I don’t see ya again before you take off, well, then good bye and God bless.” 

Jessi turned and walked toward what now appeared to have become a full blown argument between AJ and Clem. Glenn didn’t envy her, having to enter that scrum. Ranger Allen chimed in “If you’ll follow me, sir, I was with the party that escorted your coachmen here, last I saw they were over this way getting some chow. I imagine you’ve gotta be pretty hungry by now yourself?” Strangely, he wasn’t.

He followed the Ranger as she led him through the camp. She carried a coil of rope over one shoulder, and wore a bandolier full of the largest bullets he’d ever seen over the other. He assumed she was the Ranger he’d seen climbing onto the rooftop, and also wondered what sort of cannon she must’ve wielded to go with those bullets. When he arrived at the campfire where she’d left the coachmen, they’d already moved on. They too had noticed the arrival of the wagons, and the Rangers who’d been with Clem and Glenn in the hotel’s kitchen had already stopped by and brought them up to speed. They’d gone to help load the bodies onto the wagon.

Glenn accepted a bowl of something he couldn’t identify and took it with him on the way to the wagon. He made himself eat it, to be polite if nothing else, and had finished it by the time they’d arrived. Looking around, he saw the wagon train was a long one, and most of the wagons were empty. He surmised they’d come to sift through the debris in order to salvage Provident weapons and supplies. Clearly, if Clem had this many wagons read to go, she’d been planning this for a while, although she might not have been counting on how much debris was going to be left behind by the flood. Finding anything useful in that mess was going to be a tall order.

He turned to thank Ranger Allen who replied “no problem” and briskly returned to her duties. After she was gone, it occurred to Glenn that he had forgotten to ask what to do with the bowl, so he simply left it on a nearby log. He then joined the Virginia coachmen at the wagon, who simply nodded their greeting to him. He could see four shrouded bodies, two crates, and two barrels had been loaded into the wagon. One of the barrels was branded “Chef Omar’s Hard Cider” while the other apparently had no brand on it; probably water. Through the slats of the crates he could see that they had been loaded with supplies for the road. He mounted the wagon and announced, “Gents, I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to be done with this place. What do you say we get the hell out of here as soon as possible?” Apparently in agreement, they wasted no time obliging him.


End file.
